The Lark Quartet's Friday night concert was an interesting case of how one's grasp can sometimes exceed one's reach. There were glimpses of how good this ensemble was and how good it could be with the right selections and temperament.
While the quartet, which consisted of first violinist Eva Gruesser, second violinist Jennifer Orchard, violist Anna Kruger and cellist Astrid Schween, played better and better as the performance progressed, there were various musical and self-imposed hurdles. Sometimes poor piece selection stifled their communicative ability and other times the problem was that technique that took a backseat to their sheer exuberance for performing.
Opening with Mozart's quartet in B major (K.589), the performers faced unusual challenges because the piece defies the usual conceptions of how to play Mozart. It is an exponent of Mozart's turbulent later style, which taxed the composer physically and mentally.
Because his last style was becoming increasingly contrapuntal and complex, performers must try to reconcile the older, more homophonic Mozart, while trying to make the instruments more independent of each other, with a clearer sense of their own line.
Due to an excess of enthusiasm, the quartet played the first movement's "allegro" too quickly. Frequently the performers smudged over the ornamentation of the music in trying to keep pace with their reckless start. They mis-timed the triplets and at times slowed and sped again trying to find each other.
Nevertheless, the quartet's confidence never wavered. The music sung throughout the work, and the musicians paid meticulous attention to phrasing. Never did the movement lapse into a technical exercise or routine.
The ensemble played the middle sections of the quartet with precisely the aristocratic refinement that the Mozartian esthetic demands. The "Larghetto" and the "Minuetto: Moderato" exhibited extreme subtlety and control; the concentration on dynamics brought these movements to life.
A more balanced relationship amongst the instruments (commonly called voicing) added to the quartet's improved playing. The cello, for example, was much more prominent in the final movements than it was in the first, as it should be since it was written for the cellist King of Prussia!
The final movement showed the Lark Quartet's sophistication and awareness of the fact that this work was conceived in a completely different matrix than most of Mozart's oevre. Here Mozart's increasing use of voice interdependence calls for the more sensitive and knowledgeable performance that was given by the Lark Quartet.
Next the Lark Quartet performed contemporary composer Alfred Schnittke's Quartet #2. The piece, which Gruesser explained to the audience was written for the death of Schnittke's Russian filmmaking friend, showcased the premium the ensemble placed on raw emotion.
The composer's atonal composition was a shocking contrast to the Mozart quartet. And while the players performed admirably, it was the work itself that often failed them. Gruesser claimed that the composer loves to take different melodies and combine them in different ways, creating a claustrophobic effect. In reality the closest effect it came to was a narcoleptic one. Schnittke's work had the feeling of raw emotion that had yet to be chiseled to create a profound statement on grief.
The first movement pitted the instruments against each other in their highest registers. The trouble was that the piercing upper tones of the violins could always be heard while the cello and viola were constantly drowned out.
The frequently open fifth sounded out of tune, which created a minor problem: How do you tell if the jarring, disturbed sounds of grief emanated from the passionate torment felt by the composer or merely from inadequately tuned viola pegs?
The Lark Quartet closed with its most accomplished performance, Schubert's quartet in D minor (D. 810), which opened with a resounding statement of the theme, played briskly but with much better control than in the Mozart. The quartet admirably closed the section with the same vigor and tempo that it opened with.
The final sections seemed much clearer and better rehearsed than the beginning of the performance. By the time the Lark Quartet reached the evening's climax, it had rid itself of most of the technical defects that plagued it at times during the concert and freed an emotional interpretation that well deserved applause.
